Star Trek Continues is an American fan-createdweb series set in the Star Trek universe. Produced by the non-profit charity Trek Continues, Inc. and Dracogen, and initially co-produced by Far from Home LLC and Farragut Films, the series consists of eleven episodes released between 2013 and 2017. The series is an unofficial direct continuation of Star Trek: The Original Series, and emulates its visual and storytelling features to achieve the same look and feel. Those who made the show have said in interviews that the intent was to finish the original five year mission of the show, and this is borne out in the plot lines of the final two episodes. [1]

As with all such Star Trek fan productions, use of copyrighted and trademarked properties from the original series was allowed so long as the production was non-commercial.[2] A portion of the funds necessary to produce the episodes was raised through successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns, to which thousands of backers contributed.

Star Trek Continues won a Webby Award for "People's Choice – Long Form Drama" in 2016, a Geekie Award for "Best Web Series" in 2014, and numerous Telly and Accolade awards. The series was very positively received by critics, who praised the quality of the production and stated that the show set a new standard for Star Trek fan films.[3][4]

After the 11th episode was released in late 2017, the Star Trek Continues series ended.[5]

The third episode, "Fairest of Them All", featured guest support from Asia DeMarcos as Marlena Moreau (played in the original series by BarBara Luna), Bobby Clark as Council Leader Tharn, Bobby Quinn Rice as transporter technician, Michael Dorn as the computer of the ISS Enterprise, and the first appearance of Kipleigh Brown as Barbara Smith (played in the original series by Andrea Dromm). Recurring cast member Cat Roberts (Lieutenant Palmer, played in the original series by Elizabeth Rogers), joined the series as of this episode.

After directing an episode of Starship Farragut for Farragut Films, Mignogna proposed to the companies involved in its production to form a partnership to support the development of a new web series, aimed at continuing the episodes of TOS.[9]

On March 23, 2012, Farragut Films announced the official cast of the series that, among other professionals, included Chris Doohan (son of James Doohan) and MythBusters' Grant Imahara.[12][13]

Mignogna and the production team recreated the style of the original series in its sets, cinematography, costumes, acting, and storytelling style. They duplicated the four-act structure used in the original because of the need for commercial breaks. They primarily used the original series' incidental music, as well as the original theme song and credit typography. Starting with the fifth episode, original music by composer Andy Farber was included. They shot the episodes in 4:3 aspect ratio to duplicate the original series' TV format.[2][14]

The first episode, "Pilgrim of Eternity", premiered at Phoenix Comicon on May 24, 2013, and was released to the public the same day.[15] "Lolani", the second episode, finished shooting in November 2013[16] with guest stars Lou Ferrigno and Erin Gray. The episode was released online in February 2014 after premiering at Dallas Sci-Fi Expo in Dallas, Texas. Episode three, "Fairest of Them All", began principal photography that month,[16] with a premiere at Supanova 2014 in Sydney, Australia in June 2014.[17] Pre-production on the fourth episode of the series, "The White Iris", began in November 2014,[18] with a release on May 29, 2015, at Phoenix Comicon. The fifth episode premiered on September 25, 2015, at Salt Lake Comic Con followed by a public release on the following day.[19]

According to the ending credits of "Fairest of Them All", a scene of the episode was shot on location at NASA's Space Center Houston, home of the restored life-size prop of the original Star TrekGalileo shuttlecraft.

In early 2015, Star Trek Continues announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Kingsland facility, totaling 18,500 square feet, under exclusive ownership of Trek Continues Inc. The studio was re-branded as "Stage 9", an homage to the original series' soundstage at Desilu.

After releasing the first episode, funded by Mignogna,[9] new funds for the continuation of the series were raised in part from a successful Kickstarter campaign, humorously dubbed a "Kirkstarter". It was held from October 7 to November 6, 2013, and raised $126,028 from 2,981 backers, surpassing the set goal of $100,000, to cover funding for episodes 2, 3, and 4.[9][20]

A second Kickstarter campaign ran from January 17[21] to February 16, 2015. It successfully raised $214,584, exceeding its goal of $100,000. The sum covered the production costs of episodes 5, 6, and 7, and facilitated the construction of an engineering room and planet set.[22][23]

A third and final crowdfunding campaign — this time organized via Indiegogo — was held in early 2016, raising $199,049. Shortly thereafter, the producers announced that additional private donations to the Trek Continues Inc. charity allowed the company to exceed its fundraising goal of $350,000, thus enabling the production of four additional episodes.

Before screening the first episode, a series of three short videos, called vignettes, were released from July 31 to November 30, 2012. The first vignette is an extended ending of the last episode of TOS, "Turnabout Intruder", created to present the fan production as a direct continuation of the original series.[26]

The reception of Star Trek Continues has been very positive, with critics and reviewers highlighting the quality of the production and the resemblance of the episodes with those of the original series. On July 12, 2013, Dan Roth of SyFy's Blastr wrote: "Lots of people try to make fan versions of Trek. None of them look like this."[27]Slice of SciFi's Sam Sloan wrote: "They have certainly raised the bar for independent Star Trek episodic film making",[3] an opinion shared by other reviewers as well.[4] On June 18, 2014, Bill Watters of TrekMovie.com wrote: "Star Trek Continues does deserve the 'Continues' in its title as they do a really strong job at capturing (and yes, 'continuing') the atmosphere of TOS."[28]

On December 16, 2013, about a month after the ending of the Kickstarter campaign, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show published a video interview with Tom Hanks in which the actor highly praises a Star Trek fan production and its "people that recreate with incredibly, startlingly great production values unseen Star Trek episodes", adding that "it looks exactly like the starship Enterprise".[29] Although he could not put a name to the series, he described it citing information compatible with the identity of Star Trek Continues, which motivated the producers and a few sources to assume and claim that the actor was referring to them.[4][30]

On July 31, 2014, Rod Roddenberry attended an official screening of "Fairest of Them All" in Las Vegas and endorsed the project stating: "I do have to say, and I said this after 'Lolani', I'm pretty damn sure my dad would consider this canon. The fact that you do stories that mean something, that have depth, that make us all think a little bit, I really think he would applaud you guys, and I applaud you guys. And, as far as I am concerned, it is canon. So thank you."[31]

The publication Wired has dedicated to Star Trek Continues five videos of its video series Obsessed, that aims to highlight "what happens when people live out their obsessions to the fullest."[32]Obsessed shows Mignogna and other people of the staff explaining to what extent they have paid attention to detail in order to recreate the Enterprise set and the visual style of TOS. The videos have been published from June 13 to July 1, 2014 on the Obsessed website.[32]